I'm currently in the market for a new computer. The one I have currently is an Acer Aspire, with a Windows 11 operating system, and the storage is nearly full. I'm looking for something that is affordable. Also, something that is really efficient for music production, because I've lost a couple FL Studio files mid production from a lack of storage.

What computers would you guys suggest?

a new one, probably

yeah, I have to give this one to my brother when I move out, too, so I definitely need a new one

i'm sorry, but windows 11 is sux

Have you thought about building your own computer instead of oem pc?

If storage is the only limiting factor, maybe look at adding an additional drive?

Quick edit: A laptop would be good, too

adding an additional drive, or simply replacing the one you've got with a much bigger one, would be my first suggestion if that's the only issue! you can get a hard drive enclosure for pretty cheap to use either one like an external drive and clone or copy all your stuff over pretty easily

that said, if you're dead set on getting a new computer that handles a DAW nicely, processor and RAM are the most important things to get spendy about, probably closely followed by the storage needed for big chungus VSTs and sample libraries and such. i'd prioritize that over a dedicated graphics card if production is the goal moreso than gaming

do like me, buy one without any operating system pre-installed, and install gnu/linux (like ubuntu or any other distribution) instead of windoze - your computer will last longer and you'll have way less headaches

(you also might get surprised how fine the last version of some of these distributions run on 15 years-old hardware - and how many people throwing away a computer struggling to run windoze that might run gnu/linux smoothly)

This article from FL Studio is full of great info on exactly this topic, helped me for sure: https://support.image-line.com/action/knowledgebase?ans=214

Might be kind of a wildcard answer but, I got a T61 that needed a new fan for like 50 bucks and put debian on it. It's my favorite computer for tracking ever (other than ST) 'cuz it's got a squarish screen and all the relevent hotkeys. Old trackers all display pixel-for-pixel which might not sound like a big deal but it is so freaking nice

if you're dealing with storage problems, there's multiple ways to remedy this. you could rent out some cloud storage, buy an external drive, upgrade your existing drive or clean up your existing files with a tool like windirstat

.

for cheap laptops i always recommend looking at companies that refurbish older generation business laptops. i really like thinkpads for their build quality and keyboards, i tend to buy them on eBay but ymmv. however, you do need to do your research to make sure you buy a relatively recent processor as you may find listings of core-i5 or core-i7 processors that seem good but are actually a decade old.

personally i need a desktop computer to be more efficient, if you spend a lot of time computing then i believe you ought to have one. it can be a significant investment because you may need a desk, chair, monitor arm, displays etc. however i think the comfort and efficiency really is worth it. if you want to build your own, check out pcpartpicker

. building your own is fun and not too complicated but you can get lost in the weeds with all the options.

if you're on a tight budget, you should be able to find refurbished business computers too, though make sure you get a good deal and not get a machine that's too old for your needs. most of them can be upgraded with extra memory, storage and so forth.

make sure it’s windows. most chiptune programs don’t work on other operating systems.

famitracker is mostly functional when run using wine (at least in my experience) but idk about other programs

windows is a headache at the best of times but it is true that most chiptune software was built for it, so if you plan to use any of that (i recall you were planning to try out trackers) then windows is the easiest option

i think that using windoze not needed at all - i submitted entries to over 90 battle formats (all of them except most of these new ones that started this week) and i don't use windoze at home since around 20 years ago

(edit: out of curiousity, why these haeitd? what i said above is true! :O )

(edit: @retrokid104 which ones? )

you can use tools like https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat and https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 to debloat your w 11 pc. without them windows 11 is as bad as they say but with usage of those programs my w 11 laptop feels just as good as my w 10 pc

i don't think i could bear to use this infernal os without tools like these

both nightmares on using bloated os and trying to debloat it were two in a huge list of reasons made me migrate to gnu/linux

You should get an Atari 520 STe and get 4MB of RAM off ebay. With this sole machine you can compete in all of the following formats:

whole gear
amiga mod
ascii
ay/ym
chip battle art!
fakebit (it's real but pretend it's fake)
html (not very practical but technically possible)
html5 (same i guess)
midi
mix battle art
mod 04k to 64k (and beyond?)
photomash
pixel
plain text
s3xmodit

vgm (only after i code a tracker that exports to vgm)
visuall
WILD chip

See all you can do with this cheap computer? Just remember to buy a PC with a soundcard and a 3.5 inches floppy drive for recording the audio and transferring the files to the very websits.

Peas!

thank you yqn. I love how you recommended them based off of botb formats, like you just read my mind haha. How well does it work with trackers, though, and can it still download daws like FL Studio?

it's not easy to hook them up to the internet but with advanced assembly knowledge, a hard drive emulator that saves to an SD card and probably a home made operating system, you should be able to download FL Studio and then transfer it to a PC.

Edit: there are tons of trackers

for the Atari ST but the best for YM is maxYMiser. There are many trackers

for amiga modules too.
I personally use Protracker.

Chiers

and the very first Cubase version was released to Atari ST, wasn't it?

Atari ST :-)

DAWs >:-(

yep, so frustrating that daws are usually so bloated and slow these days...

It is sort of funny to note though that, yeah, ST was the birthplace of modern DAWs. They were a pretty common sight in actual multitrack studios apparently. The built-in MIDI is said to be very good

I think the A in DAW means that it can record audio, which the ST can't do. But it's one of the first MIDI workstations (the Fairlight CMI was already there)

what would be your budget? and what specs do you have in your current laptop/machine?

regardless of budget: i would recommend buying a 2nd hand pc/laptop if you're looking for good and cheap - actual new laptops are often far too expensive for what they feature inside and it's built far too cheap to be worth it at all. i would also recommend using a reputable 2nd hand/refurbished store if possible (although i don't know the choices available in the USA)

the only thing i'd say to be wary of is any sort of issues - most common ones are either battery related issues or overheating related issues, which will require you to at least know enough so that you can open your laptop/computer up and diagnose the issues/replace relevant parts.

as for the OS discussion, i would advise against linux if only because i've had a lot of trouble setting it up personally - it's really easy in particular to mess up an install, especially if following whatever guides online to troubleshoot some problem, as the linux community is often very fragmented and some fixes only work for some distros or hardware combinations, etc. - as much as i hate windows 11 personally, it's still your best choice unless you want to go for a 2nd hand Apple laptop - everything *mostly* just works.

I won't be keeping this one for very long, so repairing it is out of the question. My budget is pretty limited, as I have to save up for college, and I also don't know if I want another Windows 11/12, since this one has been terrible recently.

I guess a better question would be: "What do YOU guys use and what works for you, especially in your music production?"

"refurbished thinkpad from ebay" is kind of a classic answer nowadays. T4xx series is usually good n' cheap, I hear T480 suggested a lot. I've even edited video on PCs like this and it seems to go down fine. There's loads written about this-or-that being the best CPU, board etc. if you wanted to geek out

Unfortunately the batteries are usually toasted on these so you want another $30 budgeted for that. But it's probably the cheapest, best way to get a pseudo-bare-metal PC. They also always seem to install the latest, cheapest, corniest version of windows, but you can deal with that and keep windows by de-bloating like others have suggested, ~pirating~, or dual-installing a win-like linux like mint, which IMO is actually very easy and generally doesn't involve any of the headaches many people associate with os installation. You can use that as a fast and non-fucked up daily driver, or boot into win11 when you just need it

talking about apple laptops, what i'm using right now is a refurbished 2011 macbook air, dualboot (from refind) between osx (10.8) and gnu/linux (updated ubuntu 24.10), using mostly gnu/linux there

(and the desktop computer, that i rarely use, is a low-budget athlon with 16gb ram, 6tb hd for documents, and 2 0.5tb ssd for operating system, applications and home partitions - gnu/linux only (ubuntu as well) )

my advice about operating systems is more about trying everything regularly, including even plan-9, haiku, bsd, indiana, etc., as we never know if some operating system suddenly get improved that might outdate everything else - since late 90's i mostly kept on gnu/linux because it was the one brought me rare to none headaches ever

(and when possible, i always try to avoid components from intel or nvidia)